Inbound Marketing
Photo credit by @Irrmago on Twenty20
Inbound marketing is a term that refers to any activity or action planned and executed online, in order to attract the people´s interest and lead to an action, which can be a purchase, a vote, a datum, etc. The term “attraction marketing” is also used.
Traditional marketing is known as “outbound”, and includes public relations, events, meetings, traditional advertising, etc, and aims to reach wide groups of people, whether or not they have the specific profile to acquire the products or services being promoted, while inbound marketing is very specific and, given the tools provided by digital technologies and connectivity, can reach those groups with real interest and purchasing capacity a marketers is aiming at.
Having clear objectives in terms of sales, allows us to establish KPIs. Once we know how many people we want to reach and with which characteristics, plus the amount of money we are willing to invest, it is possible to use data mining to predict who, where, when, how and why a person or a group will require that ítem we are announcing, and how they will react to the messages, at a great stand. Outbound marketing, on the other hand, has investments that are totally wasted, as the messages and strategies reach many people whose interest and profiles are uncertain or unrelated to what it is required in a campaign.
In current times, with the pandemic, communications online have become more relevant than ever. More than 90% of marketing professionals say inbound marketing is crucial within this context and, of course, its efficiency is growing as time passes and data is collected. As its efficacy is so high and data is easier to process and measure, inbound marketing is up to 60% cheaper than outbound and its ROI is calculated in 275%.
Many techniques can be used in the production of advertising pieces to be promoted on digital channels, from memes to videos, passing through lectures, webinars, blogs, etc. So, in general, and even though business models have to be continuously revised, this is the time of inbound marketing. And in Graphics Xpress we know that well.